Review: The Stanley Dynamic “The Stanley Grades”

Posted on October 6, 2015May 4, 2017 by Tommy North

SPOILERS BELOW

Just this past Spring, a new show aired in Canada called “The Stanley Dynamic”. The show follows the Stanley family, just your average family with a mom, a dad, and three kids. The twist of it all is that one of the children, Luke, is an animated character! It’s a pretty creative endeavour. I spoke with the show runner, Ken Cuperus, last month in Toronto and we discussed some of the challenges of bringing a show like this to life. Be sure to check out whole set visit to read the whole interview, as well as check out some exclusive stills from the show.

The Stanley Dynamic is quickly becoming a staple of YTV’s primetime lineup, it’s done well enough so far that it’s already been given the greenlight for a second season. We’ve seen live action/animation hybrids in the past with “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, “Space Jam”, “Pete’s Dragon” and much more, but this is the first time we’re seeing it brought to the small screen on a consistent basis.

After a bit of an off season, The Stanley Dynamic returned with another new episode last night to continue it’s first season. Did the show come back swinging? Continue reading to find out…

In “The Stanley Grades” Larry and Luke receive their first ever report cards, along with some unexpected results that lead them both to re-evaluate their sense of self.

The Stanley Grades kicks off the rest of what will be The Stanley Dynamic’s first season. The episodes starts rather curiously as we find out that Luke and Larry’s grades aren’t exactly what anybody expected, with Luke receiving lower grades and Larry receiving higher grades. From here the story branches into the episode’s three stories. Luke takes a stab at teaching art while Larry joins chess club at school. There is also a third story in this episode where we see mom join a fitness class only to find out that her instructor isn’t what she expected.

The episode tackles some interesting themes in this episode. Identity and one’s own ego. We see two characters discover something that alters their perception of themselves. They no longer know where they belong, so they desperately search for new identities, a sense of belonging. In that, I think the episode scored some points for throwing their characters into uncomfortable situations and seeing what happens. Having two “fish out of water” stories approached from different angles made for some funny moments.

There were a few hiccups along the way. How Larry actually gets onto the chess team didn’t really work. He essentially approached a game two kids were playing knocked over a King and said “checkmate”. A girl on the chess team saw that this move would come to fruition in five moves and declared that Larry must be a chess genius. It’s sort of a funny sequence of events, especially when the story comes full circle and Larry’s chess prowess is put to the test, but from a story perspective it didn’t really add up well.

Luke’s side of the story fell a little short for me. To find a new sense of self, he teaches dad’s art class for him. From a story point of view, everything checked out well. It suffered from the opposite of Larry’s story. While Larry’s story had me laughing, this one didn’t so much. Luke approaches teaching with a sense of sophistication. He overthinks the teaching process and ends up coming short of his goal. So he’s left in a position where he doesn’t think he can succeed academically or artistically. Ultimately the episode does end with a pretty convenient ending, but it is a happy ending.

Mom’s story was okay. I think the fitness teacher shined the most in this story. Her craziness and determination was funny, not to mention her knack of showing up in unexpected places from out of nowhere. I must admit she had me laughing a few times.

Overall, this was a good episode. The goofy comedy you saw in the first portion of the season is still very present and we’re seeing these characters put in situations that not only tell the audience what kind of character they are, but it’s usually something that feels something different from before. It could have been easy to just make Luke the animated counterpart of Larry, but they are two distinct characters with different personalities and it’s nice to see that reflected. It means we aren’t always laughing at the same thing.